Post tabloid-style black metal reportage, black metal turned on death metal - there was a huge divide. Many jumped ship, denouncing bands that they'd previously worshipped, forgetting how many of them had made statements along the lines of "we hate fake death metal bands and we'll find out who the trendies are when they move on to the next big thing." Well, the next big thing was black metal and most of the said bands did indeed move on.

So yeah, did you stay true to the death or did you buy a Burzum t-shirt and turn into a Norse mythology-quoting he-man? Did you trash your Therion LPs, your Benediction... any other 'life metal' in your collection? Or did you become even more staunch in your support of death metal?

I don't remember a lot of fence-sitters tbh... black metal was such an extreme statement back then, everyone had a strong opinion one way or another._________________http://thykindreddreamers.blogspot.co.uk/

In 93 I was just starting to hear words like "Burzum" and "Marduk" but I didn't start actually investigating it until about a year later. I was pretty young too and I just didn't have the cash to buy very many releases. So I'd have to say I was firmly a DM/thrash fan. But I also never decided that DM sucked just because BM got big. I happily enjoyed both types of metal alongside each other without worrying about it.

Yeah, i know what you mean. But to be honest always found pretty dumb those guys who ONLY listened Black Metal. I knew quite some people like that back in the day.
In my case, 93 (beginning of..) was the year i discovered BM, some months before all the Kerrang reports. I got this VHS tape with a Profanatica, Impaled Nazarene, Beherit, Samael gigs. Although this was life changing for me, i never stopped listening to Death Metal, but always had a preference for bands like Morbid Angel, Deicide, Incantation, Hypocrisy.
Also, at that time, none of those BM euro tours at the time went to Portugal, all BM gigs i saw at the time were by portuguese bands (with the exception of Cradle of Filth in 94 when they played there for the first time), so i was obviously supporting DM bands going to their gigs (Deicide, Suffocation, Carcass, Pungent Stench, Brutal Truth)
So yeah, i was more or less what you mean by a fence sitter eheh.

Back then I mostly listened to "satanic" Death Metal so with the explosion of Black Metal it was 'natural' to listen to those bands. However back then the label wasn't that popular or important. We didn't see much difference between Samael or Blasphemy and Deicide or Morbid Angel for example. There was Grindcore (political or gore) and then there was Death Metal (satanic / darker themes) - that was the only difference. Most people got along well, we all attended the same concerts. I even went to see Brutal Truth and Napalm Death show in 1992 even though I disagree with their lyrics/message.

Majority of the people heard (about) Black Metal because of Darkthrone. Everyone loved "Soulside Journey" and it was easily available in 'normal' music stores like HMV or Sunrise. When the new Darkthrone was released in 1992 some people hated it and some people took notice. And this was the introduction to BM for most people.

And I know that those who slandered Death Metal back then still kept their favorite DM albums, hidden perhaps, but they didn't throw them out. It was a stupid trend that some people followed. Even Faust (Emperor) called Morbid Angel's second LP "Blessed Are The Wimpy" because it sold thousands of copies and they made a video. I guess that makes Emperor's second LP "Anthems to the Wimps at Dusk".

Like others in this thread have mentioned already, it wasn't a total face-off for me either, although I was somewhat bored back then at all those thousands of death metal bands. But it didn't take long to get bored at the endless swarm of (new) black metal bands as well.
Then when the black metal silliness started, I chose the other side; the last sentence of the editorial in my zine ( Shadow Dancing, released only in 95 though) read;

Quote:

have fun and support life until we enter the dance floor again!

I'm pretty sure that a few of my penpals stopped writing to me because of that sentence.
I concur with the thread starter, that there was a stigma of some sort for listening to death metal, if you were a black metal freak. But there certainly were fence-sitters, like me.

Even Faust (Emperor) called Morbid Angel's second LP "Blessed Are The Wimpy" because it sold thousands of copies and they made a video. I guess that makes Emperor's second LP "Anthems to the Wimps at Dusk".